Litter and fly-tipping in England

[GatwickDepress]

I agree with this, but there must be many areas where there is little danger to health, where litter perpetrators could safely go about the business of clearing up both their's & others mess.

Litter picking is an option for Community Payback schemes and I think some Category D prisons might offer it too, but the issues seems to primarily be logistical and financial. It takes a lot of resources and money to arrange transport for prisoners, have enough officers to supervise, all the briefings and assessments to be done, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if it wound up cheaper to just hire people on minimum wage than have people working on the 'chain gang'

 

[WelshBluebird]

This sort of thing is ridiculous. People should be able to take stuff to the nearest tip, irrespective of council boundaries.

The issue is then who pays for it, especially given the strain on council budgets since 2010.

If you have a large amount of housing on one side of a council boundary, but the tip is on the other side, people in one council area are essentially paying to allow people on the other side to more easily dispose of their waste.

 

[Bikeman78]

The issue is then who pays for it, especially given the strain on council budgets since 2010.

If you have a large amount of housing on one side of a council boundary, but the tip is on the other side, people in one council area are essentially paying to allow people on the other side to more easily dispose of their waste.

I would rather do that than have rubbish dumped in the fields or lanes nearby. Which ultimately the council would end up having to pay to remove. Regarding your first point, why does it matter? It will all balance out in the end. I couldn't even tell you where boundaries are. I expect that applies to most people.

I have also noted along railway lines where people don't walk and there are no adjacent roads or paths, there is still a collection of debris. Bottles, cans food bags etc. Next time you're stopped at a red signal, take a look and wonder how on earth this got there when there are no opening windows on passenger trains?

In this example, they have probably been there for years. The seat cushions from slam door units that yobs had thrown out of the windows were visible for at least a decade after they finished. By now they have probably rotted away or simply buried under the tangle of brambles and buddleia.

I do regular local litter picks and some people chose to give me abuse. Bizarre evidence that some people don't like 'do-gooders'?

That is bizarre. When someone interacts with me, they usually say thank you.

 

[JamesT]

What is defined as commercial waste? If I have a builder in to do some work, is the rubble commercial waste? If so, where are they supposed to take it?

Yes, that would be commercial waste. I would expect any reputable builder to arrange collection and disposal in a properly approved facility for such waste.

 

[WelshBluebird]

I would rather do that than have rubbish dumped in the fields or lanes nearby. Which ultimately the council would end up having to pay to remove. Regarding your first point, why does it matter? It will all balance out in the end. I couldn't even tell you where boundaries are. I expect that applies to most people.

I agree with your first point, but the rest I'm less sure of.

I don't think it does balance out in the end because ultimately some councils struggle more than others and some areas have much lower council tax than others. So you could be adding more onto an already struggling council when the other council is swimming in cash, or a council could essentially be offloading its tip costs to another council allowing them to have artifically lower council tax.

And most people should know which council they are in, even if they don't know where the exact boundary is!

 

[dangie]

I wouldn't be surprised if it wound up cheaper to just hire people on minimum wage than have people working on the 'chain gang'

Maybe, but surely the punishment should fit the crime. The object is to try to stop the guilty from reoffending. If it costs more so be it.

 

[Robin Edwards]

I would rather do that than have rubbish dumped in the fields or lanes nearby. Which ultimately the council would end up having to pay to remove. Regarding your first point, why does it matter? It will all balance out in the end. I couldn't even tell you where boundaries are. I expect that applies to most people.


In this example, they have probably been there for years. The seat cushions from slam door units that yobs had thrown out of the windows were visible for at least a decade after they finished. By now they have probably rotted away or simply buried under the tangle of brambles and buddleia.

That is bizarre. When someone interacts with me, they usually say thank you.

Yes, most interactions during such events are words of encouragement but there are a proportion of people in society that choose to sneer.

In terms of the seat cushions thrown out of slam-door stock, we're talking debris that will have been there for years and most lines will have been reba lasted pithing the timescales this stock was withdrawn. Bottles and Cans, coffee cups, food wrappings are much easier to tell if they have laid there for an extensive time. Even freight lines are afflicted.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

In this example, they have probably been there for years. The seat cushions from slam door units that yobs had thrown out of the windows were visible for at least a decade after they finished. By now they have probably rotted away or simply buried under the tangle of brambles and buddleia

Vandals on the Watford DC lines would "post" 313 squabs out of the opening windows - a frequent Friday night thing , one case strip a vehicle of seat bases / fire extinguishers and chuck them out at stations. We would run a seat recovery special as soon as possible to collect them and send them to Bletchley for cleaning and new covers. ........

Part of the deal with the then Railtrack was to get them to do little blitzes on trackside debris under cover of unplanned but "neccesary" possessions topick up debris - with good results , picking up several tons of inner London leavings. (and paint out graffiti trackside - especially obscene of "racist" stuff)

 

[londonbridge]

Did my parkrun at Bedfont Lakes yesterday, the usual cafe for post run breakfast and coffee etc is The Orchard, I’ve done Bedfont quite a few times and never really thought about or noticed it before, but walking/jogging to the cafe yesterday I was struck by the amount of rubbish and litter on the roadside.

 

[Acey]

I was served by a Bluebottle in a cafe the other day,got done for flytipping !

Sorry !

 

[Bikeman78]

I was out with my kids yesterday picking up rubbish and sweeping up the remains of a crushed glass bottle. A couple in their car pulled up and the passenger wound down the window and said it was nice to see someone doing something positive and showing my kids a good example. He then handed me a tenner for the children to spend.

 

[dangie]

Out cycling today, riding down a country lane there were signs nailed to trees saying ‘No Fly Tipping’.

Whereas this of course is well meant, what a pointless sign. As if any would be fly-tippers would stop, see the sign, then say ‘Oh we can’t dump our rubbish here’, then drive off to somewhere else.

I do sometimes wonder who thinks up these things.

 

[Kite159]

Out cycling today, riding down a country lane there were signs nailed to trees saying ‘No Fly Tipping’.

Whereas this of course is well meant, what a pointless sign. As if any would be fly-tippers would stop, see the sign, then say ‘Oh we can’t dump our rubbish here’, then drive off to somewhere else.

I do sometimes wonder who thinks up these things.

If someone wants to fly tip then dumping it down a quiet country lane where there is likely going to be no CCTV or other traffic is sadly the most logical place to dump the rubbish.

Only to run into an undercover camera set up to catch said acts in action.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I was out with my kids yesterday picking up rubbish and sweeping up the remains of a crushed glass bottle. A couple in their car pulled up and the passenger would down the window and said it was nice to see someone doing something positive and showing my kids a good example. He then handed me a tenner for the children to spend.

Brilliant and very well done you and the kids ! - Impressed.

 

[alex397]

I recently have been to Romania and Hungary. Fly tipping was certainly bad there, such as on the edge of Timişoara. Though there seems to be more civic pride in their town/city centres compared to the UK, with largely clean and well maintained city centres.
Hungary was better, I didn’t really see any fly tipping, and the city centres were even cleaner than Romania.
Like most of the continent, there is a deposit scheme for cans and bottles in both those countries, with plenty of people seen walking around picking these up and rooting around bins. I do wonder if this will ever be implemented in the UK, and why it’s taking so long to do it - it’s been talked about for decades.

I was out with my kids yesterday picking up rubbish and sweeping up the remains of a crushed glass bottle. A couple in their car pulled up and the passenger would down the window and said it was nice to see someone doing something positive and showing my kids a good example. He then handed me a tenner for the children to spend.

It sounds like the tenner was well deserved!

 

[Bald Rick]

I was out with my kids yesterday picking up rubbish and sweeping up the remains of a crushed glass bottle. A couple in their car pulled up and the passenger wound down the window and said it was nice to see someone doing something positive and showing my kids a good example. He then handed me a tenner for the children to spend.

That wouldn’t happen here. My kids only accept contactless.

 

[Egg Centric]

Just saw this and it made me sad

(Image shows a community free herb garden at Bowes Park station that someone has chucked litter into)